


Mates

by JayceCarter



Series: Kinktober 2018 [25]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Kinktober 2018, Rough Sex, Scent Kink, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 13:31:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16388633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayceCarter/pseuds/JayceCarter
Summary: Thane's sense of smell gets him into trouble when he notices something about Jane, something he reacts strongly to.





	Mates

**Author's Note:**

> Kinktober Day 25: Scent Kink

  


“What the hell is your problem?” Jane hissed the words out as Thane tried to leave her room moments after entering.

He didn’t look her in the eye, gaze down, hands folded behind him, back straight. “I have other things to attend to.”

“Then why did you come here?”

He shook his head in a quick jerk. “Nothing. I was mistaken. I shall see you in a few days.”

Was it Kolyat? Was he feeling unwell from his illness? Jane wasn’t about to let Thane rush out when he was acting so strange.

Thane was nothing if not steady, so when he walked into her quarters for one of their many late night discussions, taken one good look at her, then turned on his heels to rush out, she wasn’t letting it stand.

She rushed over, sliding herself between him and the door. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Thane backed up a few large steps, shaking his head again like trying to clear it. “I need to leave. It is best if I leave.”

“No. I outlast everyone, Thane, and I can be a pain in your ass until you talk to me.” She reached forward, wanting to grab his hand, to make him explain the rapid twitches of his eyes, the way his inner eyelids blinked quickly.

Except, when she came forward, so did he. Not slowly, not carefully, but in a rush. Thane shoved her against the wall beside the door and buried his face in her neck. He sniffed, drawing breath into his lungs through his nose, a sound she recognized as a growl on his lips.

The action startled her so much, she used her biotics on instinct in a large shove that knocked him backward.

Thane hit the ground but in a graceful roll, was on his feet again, chest rising and falling in a frenzy she’d never seen before. Even when facing almost certain death, nothing ruffled Thane.

He caught her gaze, then turned to stare at the fish in her aquarium. “I am sorry. That was. . . unforgivable. Please, allow me to leave.”

Jane kept her hand up, the blue flash of biotics still on her skin. Sometimes it was easy to forget the threat Thane could be when he wished to be one, and she couldn’t understand his behavior. “What was that?”

“A mistake. It will not happen again.” Even as he spoke, gaze away from her, his shoulders rolled. Had he tweaked it when she’d thrown him?

“Just talk to me, please? We’re friends.”

He sighed, then drew a hand forward to rub at the bridge of his nose. “You are ovulating, Shepard.”

The words had her lowering her hand and dispersing the biotic energy, the last things she’d expected from his mouth. “Excuse me?”

“Drell have an excellent sense of smell, and the moment I walked in, your smell struck me. You are ovulating.”

“Well, that’s embarrassing and invasive.”

“Indeed. In case you have forgotten, I attempted to leave before announcing such a thing.”

“That doesn’t explain what you did, though.”

He walked closer to the aquarium, fingers tracing the glass as if the action would keep his attention. “No, it does not. Drell are driven by hormonal swings. When a drell’s mate ovulates, the male is biologically drawn to aid them. There is increased arousal, aggression, impulsivity.”

“We aren’t mates, though.”

He said nothing back, fingers following a fish.

“We aren’t mates, Thane, right?”

Finally, he tapped a finger and turned toward her. “It seems we are. Mates for drell aren’t like they are for humans, for most races. We do not choose them directly. Enough time with someone we care for, someone we are attracted to, and our bodies form that bond for us. I hadn’t expected this, would have never sprung it on you like this if I’d have known, if I had realized.”

Jane tried to make sense of the words, of what he’d said to her. According to his body, at least, they were mates? It wasn’t that she hadn’t started to want things to go that way, that she hadn’t found herself craving more of him, that she didn’t look forward to his visits, their talks.

But, mates seemed so official.

“I am asking nothing of you, Shepard. This is not an attempt to manipulate you. When I realized what had happened upon entering, I tried to leave, to collect myself. If you simply allow me to leave, I will do so, and we will need not discuss this again.”

“Until next month when it happens again?”

“Every month?” That growl filled the space between them again, but he closed his eyes, took a breath, and silenced it. “I had not realized it happened so often with humans. With drell, it only occurs perhaps twice a year. There are a few options. I can avoid you during the worst of it, use breathing filters to reduce the impact, and I know of a few medicines that can also reduce my reaction. As I said, I would never force this on you.” He met her gaze, eyes pleading. “Please, allow me to leave. I do not wish to shame either of us, and my control can only be pressed so far. I do not wish to do anything you might regret, and I cannot think straight when you smell as good as you do.”

Jane moved out of the way, shifting back to the desk to give him room, unsure what else to say or do.

Thane offered a half-smile, sad and tense, then nodded and left the room on quick steps.

Jane leaned against her desk, unsettled by the event, by Thane’s actions, and worst of all? By how she reacted to them.

#

 

Two hours later, Jane snuck into Thane’s room. EDI opened the door for her, the AI always too quick to involve itself in the personal lives of the crew.

Two steps into the room, Thane’s voice met her. “This may not be wise.”

“Figures I’d never be able to sneak up on an assassin.”

“Perhaps, had you not smelled the way you do right now, you might have.” He paused, then a soft laugh. “Probably not even then.”

Jane could see his figure in the bed, no blankets on him, the light from the window overlooking the engine. Details didn’t come, the light enough only to grasp his silhouette.

“Why are you here?”

“I spent time thinking while you were gone. While I didn’t expect this, I’m not sorry about it.”

“You do not understand. You’ve never been the mate of a drell. It can be overwhelming and challenging.”

“But, according to you, we’re already mates.”

He sighed and sat up, the dim light catching on his scales. “We are to me, but not to you. We have something I have not had in a long time. If we did this, if you then decided it was not what you wished, I am afraid losing that would be too painful.”

Jane pulled her top off, then worked off the sleeping pants she’d worn for the short walk from her quarters to his. “I can’t say how long this will work for, or what will happen, but I can say that for now? For tonight? I want you.” She climbed into the bed beside him.

He didn’t touch her, though all his muscles had gone rigid as if it took all his control and effort to remain still. “When in this state of mind, Shepard, I can’t be gentle. I can’t be the person I want to be with you, for you.”

She crawled into his lap, her hands framing his cheeks, her forehead against his. “What makes you think I need gentle?”

“Siha,” he whispered like a prayer before grasping her waist and flipping them over.

The switch that turned in him almost made her regret the choice. His nose pressed against her throat, that growling sound back, his hand leaving her to work at the loose sweats he’d worn. Once he’d kicked them free, his hand went between her thighs, fingers careful but unyielding.

“I have thought of your scent since I left your quarters. I tried to exercise, to shower, to relieve the tension it created in me myself, but nothing worked.” His lips brushed her collarbone as he spoke, as he drew her scent into his lungs as if he needed it more than air.

The words had Jane wrapping a leg around his hips, the thought of him stroking himself picturing her? Remembering the way she’d smelled?

Thane was so driven by rules and expectations that he never let go like this, never seemed to just feel or just be. At that moment, however, he wasn’t an assassin, or a widow, or a father, or anything beyond her . . . mate?

He did not take long touching her, impatience in each stroke. Not that it mattered, Jane had been ready since she’d entered the room. She’d walked in there knowing exactly where this would go, prepared for it to go that way. In some ways, this was better. No nerves, no slow ‘should we’ moments. Nothing but need.

He shifted and pressed his cock against her. His voice came out strained. “Are you sure? Tell me you want this, that you want me.”

Jane wrapped her arms up, beneath his arms, to grasp his back. “I want you, Thane.”

He nodded, drew in another breath, then slid into her. He set a pace harder than she’d have expected. She’d always pictured Thane more gentle, more controlled.

Then again, that was what he’d worried about, wasn’t it? That without his senses and his control to keep him in check, that perhaps she wouldn’t like this side of him.

So Jane let herself love him the way she knew he needed. She gave herself over to that primal side of him, to the instinct in him that made him desperate to satisfy her, to claim her, to breed her despite both knowing biologically he couldn’t. Neither seemed to care.

He took her hard, and she gave him everything. Her surrender spurred him on, his hands gripping her to keep her still and his cock plunged into her. It was unhinged and wild and everything she could have wanted.

That growl never stopped, increasing until the slight vibration of his chest could be felt where her breasts pressed against him. His fingers dug into her so tight, it ached, but she only arched into the touch.

He drew another breath in, groaning before his one last roll of his hips had him coming. Those fingers dug in deeper, his lips pressing kisses to her throat.

It took him a few moments before he withdrew from her, gaze refusing to meet hers.

Jane would have none of it. She extracted her arms from him and caught his cheeks again. “Don’t you dare regret it, Thane, not a moment of it.”

His second eyelids blinked slowly before he leaned closer so his forehead rested against hers. “How could I regret it? I have wanted nothing more in a very long time.”

Jane tipped her head to brush her lips to his. She offered a slow, leisurely kiss, before pulling back. “So, feeling better now? No more growling?”

Thane lowered his nose to her throat to inhale again. The noise started up again. “No, you still smell as delicious as before. I researched after I left you to find human females ovulate for 12-48 hours.” His hips shifted, his cock stroking over her thigh, hard again. “By your smell, I’d say you have another twelve hours before it will end.”

“Twelve hours of this?” Jane arched against him when he pushed back into her, her hands sliding to the back of his neck, words on a gasp. “You’re out of your mind.”

Thane lifted himself enough so he could look into her gaze, the intensity in his dark eyes saying her scent had retaken hold. “I believe I can keep you occupied.” He hooked a hand beneath her thigh and lifted it, wrapping the leg around his hips. “And if I am out of my mind, there is nowhere I’d rather spend that madness than here, with you.”

  



End file.
